The Melting Pot

Weird Village!

Nat Purwa. Does the name ring a bell?

Its not the name of a person but its the name of a village near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. Its like any other village in India. Illiterate people, poor infrastructure etc. But there’s a difference.

The menfolk don’t work. Its the women of the village who are the bread winners. Now you would say, kudos to the village community for realising the potential of its women and not discriminating. Think again. The men don’t work part is correct. But the women, from generations, take up prostitution to support their families!! Yes prostitution. Surprisingly, the people of the village do not have any problem with this age old tradition. The women have no objections and accept the tradition as their fate. But more surprising is that the daughters-in-law are not forced into flesh trade. The villagers believe that since their daugters-in-law come from different villages where such a tradition does not exist, it would not be right to force them into selling their body to support the family.

But the same does not hold good for the innocent daughters of the same daughters-in-law who are forced to take up this dirty profession at a tender age just because they were born in a family which follows a stupid and abusive tradition. These girls are busy pleasing men who are the age of their fathers while girls of the same age in other parts of the country are busy attending school and playing.

Never before had I heard of such a thing. It is indeed shocking. For more on this, grab a copy of Outlook (April 10, 2006) & just open up page 10. The article features a woman, Chandralekha, who broke this age old tradition and stood up for herself and her family after being nearly 20 years in the flesh trade.

Read about it here.

And this time, I really want to know what you people think!!